A Pharaoh to Remember
| image = | image_size = | episode = 49 | prod_code = 3ACV17 | season = 4 | airdate = March 10, 2002 | runtime = 30 minutes | director = Mark Ervin | guests = | writer = Ron Weiner | storyboards = | subtitle = Psst... big party at your house after the show! | cartoon = Toys Will Be Toys | preceded_by = "A Leela of Her Own" | followed_by = "Anthology of Interest II" }} Plot Bender grows concerned that he will be doomed to obscurity, and sets off to rectify the situation. One of these schemes includes spraying graffiti on the side of a building, saying "Bender Lives Large And Kicks Butt." The building is demolished, and his phrase is reduced to "Bender Licks Butt". Bender returns the Planet Express Building to find out that the crew has staged a "funeral" for him, but it ends badly. The Professor assigns the crew a new mission: deliver a giant sandstone block to the planet O'Cyris IV. Upon their arrival, they find a desert world whose society is modeled after ancient Egypt and who they claim introduced interstellar travel to them. The crew is enslaved to work on the building of the funeral pyramid of Pharaoh Hermenthotip. Their job is to work alongside the other slaves, moving heavy stone blocks manually. Bender, impressed by the Osirin Pharaohs' method of ensuring their place in history, becomes a workaholic, working so fast the slave drivers can't even keep up with him. Pharaoh Hermenthotip arrives to inspect his newly completed pyramid; and just as he was about to set everyone free, he is killed when the nose falls off a giant statue of himself. The priests entomb Hermenthotip, and he is remembered in song, and the next day they consult their Wall of Prophecy to select the new pharaoh. While the slaves partied over their few hours of freedom, Bender sneaks out and makes a few surreptitious modifications to the wall, therefore, the wall declares him the new pharaoh. Newly crowned Pharaoh Bender demands a statue of himself, one billion cubits tall, so that he will be remembered forever. Construction proceeds, with Bender quickly establishing himself as an excessively dictatorial and ruthless pharaoh, and the massive statue is soon completed. Nonetheless, when it is unveiled, Pharaoh Bender announces that he is displeased with it, and wants it to be torn down and rebuilt. The high priests, disgusted and tired with Bender, wrap him for burial, and toss him into the tomb, along with Fry and Leela at Bender's request. Fry and Leela want to blast their way out using the explosive Schnapps from the tomb's distillery; but Bender objects, worried that he won't be remembered if the statue is destroyed. Fry and Leela make a show of not remembering Bender, and he relents. After blasting a crack in the statue's foot, Fry, Leela, and Bender escape and run back to the Planet Express ship. As the ship departs from O'Cyris IV, the statue explodes in a gigantic fireball. Bender is distraught, but Leela consoles him with the knowledge that his reign of terror will be remembered longer than any statue. Satisfied, Bender tells the crew to set course for Earth. As the ship approaches an Earth-like planet, Bender begins to laugh evilly. Leela points out that the planet isn't Earth and Bender stops laughing. The ship flies away from the planet, ostensibly towards Earth. Alienese *The sign in Alienese reads, "Rock On Eddie Rosas". Rosas is a character layout artist for Futurama. Ongoing Themes Character Arcs Sal is struggling with his speech impediment in this episode. Death, near-death, mutilation *Pharaoh Hamenthotip is crushed to death by the falling nose of his own likeness on his funeral monument. *A group of cats trapped in a bag are thrown to their deaths in Pharaoh's tomb. *Elton John is thrown to his death in Pharaoh's tomb, and his piano is thrown in afterward, presumably crushing him and guaranteeing his death. *Fry pounds a nail into his own hand. *Countless slaves are killed during construction of Bender's monument, leaving behind skeletons in its walls. *The entire civilization that built Bender's monument is presumably destroyed when the monument itself is destroyed. Doppelgängers Pharaoh Bender commands his society to build a statue of himself a billion cubits tall. Category:Season Three Category:Episodes Category:Season 3 Category:Bender Episodes